Oil city Balikpapan celebrates 101 birthday
By Antoni Tambunan
BALIKPAPAN, East Kalimantan (JP): Some residents have reportedly complained that this City of Oil is so rich that beggars haunting some shopping centers refuse Rp 100 coins and hold out for at least Rp 500 notes.
No wonder. This city that celebrated its 101st anniversary Tuesday, boasted order and cleanliness, and has become the main development center of the province's southern regions.
It is now the gateway not only to East Kalimantan but the whole of Kalimantan, whether by land, sea or air. Covering 503,305 square kilometers and with a population of 400,000, Balikpapan is a municipality with a strategic geographical location on one side of the Makassar Strait.
The first oil drilling in the city was conducted on Feb. 10, 1897 by Holland's Mathilda Oil Company. Now, it produces around 75.6 million barrel of oil, with annual growth of 1.8 million of barrel, and 320,478 barrel of non-oil and gas products per annum.
For all of these reasons, it is Balikpapan -- rather than the provincial capital Samarinda or other major cities -- that has been made the seat of the Tanjungpura Regional Military Command, whose jurisdiction covers all of Kalimantan.
Importance
Greater importance has also been attached to Balikpapan with the establishment of the Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA).
This cooperation scheme involves 10 provinces in Indonesia's eastern region, one of which is East Kalimantan. Hence Balikpapan's greater involvement in international relations.
Under this arrangement, Balikpapan has become one of the nodes of economic growth for eastern ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations). At present it can boast its international-standard Sepinggan airport and several star-rated hotels.
The eighth MICE (Meeting, Incentive, Conference and Exhibition) city in Indonesia, Balikpapan has hosted such international activities as the PATA tourism conference, BIMP- EAGA gatherings, a Conference on the South China Sea and the Camel Trophy '96.
To ensure success as a MICE city, the administration and the entire community are working to keep Balikpapan clean and cool, mayor H. Tjutjup Suparna told The Jakarta Post recently.
In terms of oil and gas, the per capita income of this municipality increased from Rp 7.5 million in 1995 to Rp 8.3 million in 1996, he said.
The city has been awarded the Adipura award for clean cities five consecutive times since 1991. In 1996 and 1997 it earned the Adipura Kencana (golden) award.
Balikpapan was also rewarded for it excellent traffic order (the Wahana Tata Nugraha awards) between 1992 and 1995. In 1996 and 1997 it was awarded the Wahana Tata Nugraha Kencana award.
Award
To top it all, it has also been awarded the Parasamya Purna Karya Nugraha award for development undertakings.
American Zygfryd Ostrowski, who visits the city almost every year, said he admired the cleanliness and the orderliness of the city. He said one could park a car or motorcycle safely at any roadside or in front of a house.
"This shows that Balikpapan is safe," he said.
Tjutjup, 44, who was elected to his second five-year term in 1996, told the Post that the municipality now owns two street cleaning trucks and 64 garbage trucks to ensure the city remains clean.
"We make every guest, domestic or otherwise, feel at home here. Community members also play an active role to keep the city clean by not dumping household garbage carelessly," he said.
In order to cope with an increasing population, residential and urban areas are being expanded outside the city and supported by the establishment of facilities such as supermarkets, he said.
"Rapid economic growth and increasing foreign investment in this municipality call for intensified promotion of human resources. Otherwise, local people will simply be onlookers some day," the mayor added.